Monthly Archives: January 2009

Ah, Friday – glorious, wonderful, ever-lovin’ Friday. It’s a sure sign the weekend’s on its way – and it means the thrill of reading The Security Week is here once more.

First up, it’s me. Hooray. I’m going on about the need for a change in the outlook of those involved with IP security, and I’d describe it as ‘a particularly incisive piece of opinionating’ if I were not too modest to do so.

We’ve also got our old pal the CCTV Doctor providing some advice on the legality of having your CCTV images viewed by any old Tom, Dick or Harry in your organisation. Useful!

Oh yes – it’s trumpet blowing time. Brian Sims, illustrious and respected editor of SMT Online, has been sought out by the London Evening Standard to provide some industry perspective on the appointment of Paul Stephenson as Met Police Commissioner. Kudos, to you, Brian. Kudos.

There’s a fascinating story on a truly superb conference, fully endorsed by I4S, and going by the name of Securing Educational Establishments. You’ll be intrigued to know that it is all about securing educational establishments. If it was a tin, it would do what it said on itself. Kind of.

Today’s Song About Security comes courtesy of The Clash. You may have heard of them. Enjoy the delicious dubtasticness. It’s a personal favourite.

Cripes! It’s another thrilling edition of the world’s best-loved and most respected daily security news service blog thing. Except for yesterday, which I missed. Sorry.

Today, I shoot my mouth off about the state of IP security and the increasing need for hybrid systems. Classy!

We’ve also got a very interesting piece from John Elliott on the mobile fingerprinting schemes becoming popular with police forces.

Our CCTV Doctor tackles a question from a reader which deals with the legalities of access to CCTV images within an organisation. Just who can watch it?

And as an exciting bonus, if you happen to be in London today, make sure you pick up a copy of the Evening Standard newspaper. Within it – on page 47 of early editions – is a comment piece by SMT Online editor Brian Sims about the appoint of Paul Stephenson to the Commissioner’s role at the Metropolitan Police. We’ll link to it when it appears on that publication’s website.

Well, what a stonking day of security news and associated things. Let’s investigate, shall we?

First up, Stewart Hefferman takes a long hard look at that most contentious of subjects: identity cards. Are they ripe for the plucking by devious fraudsters? Reading the article will provide you with more information.

Then, Brian Sims – the illustrious editor of SMT Online – guides us through one of THE greatest conferences of this or any other lifetime: Securing Educational Establishments. I am not one for overstatement, but if you miss out on this conference you will regret it for the rest of your time here on this planet. Possibly!

We’ve also got the lowdown on SMT Select, the invitation-only security networking and information club. It’s a little bit special.

Do you own an airport? Are birds causing a problem? Perhaps you need a Scarecrow.

We’ve got a couple of interesting case studies as well – there’s G4Tec’s success at Southampton University, and Avigilon is lending a helping hand to Novartis with its HD CCTV gear.

There’s a lot more besides. It’s at info4security.com. As an unbiased observer, I’d thoroughly recommend that you explore it fully.

It’s time to indulge in some full-on security newsology – so hold on to your trousers. It’s going to be a heck of a ride!

First up is a piece on gambling. That’s casino-style gambling, not aimless betting on the speed of tree growth or the outcome of local council elections. Nope, this is all about using video analytics to help extract even more cash from happy-go-lucky punters. Everyone’s a winner!

There’s also our latest Bench Test, which this time around looks at the 800 Series cameras from Fujitsu. With mixed results!

And for all the Health and Safety fanatics out there – and I know there are a huge amount – we have a story on the Health and Safety act. Enthralling!

Don’t forget to throw your support behind the conference Securing Educational Establishments. If you do so, people will find you personally more attractive and charismatic, and thus will be very keen to do business with you. Simple, really.

Here’s the thing. You should book yourself a place at the conference Securing Educational Establishments. Why? Isn’t my word good enough? Ok, well, it’ll be informative and useful and offer advice and talk about issues and things. See?

ADI-Gardiner, along with Pyronix and Castle Care-Tech, is welcoming installers to the 21st Century. That’s BT’s 21st Century Network, not the actual century! Ha! That would be around nine years out of date if it was actually the case. Which it is not.

In the United States of America, where there has been some recent leadership reshuffle or something, ADT Security Services has won a court ruling that bans ‘The Tag Company’ from making or selling its anti-theft products in the US. The court judged that it was guilty of patent infringement against ADT’s Sensormatic EAS systems.

There’s also a guard dogs standard which has been issued for comment, though presumably not by the dogs themselves. However, this is the 21st century, so letter-writing dogs are not entirely out of the question. Or are they? Perhaps.

Yesterday saw global attention and widespread euphoria, as the IFSEC 2009 Security Industry Awards were opened for entries. How could we follow such an historic moment, we wondered?

With a photo of a guy with fluorescent dye all over his head, that’s how. Forensic security system SmartWater has helped to convict three burglars at a Somerfield supermarket. Success!

There’s also a particularly useful feature on the 12 golden rules for safer online shopping, the first of which is: Do not try to force banknotes into your computer’s disk drive. That almost never works.

Security Installer editor Alan Hyder has let loose the dogs of opinion once more in his latest SI Editor’s View – including a controversial stance on tagging harmless trainspotters. Outrageous!